The sustainability of Island View Elementary’s program was obvious to the judges who loved the “Walk and Wheel: Everyday! Everywhere!” habit-supporting tagline and the community engagement that included local police, school staff, parents and senior community volunteers. Island View Elementary works to include those unable to walk or ride, encouraging them to commute via bus or carpool to cut down the single occupancy traffic around the school.
As the days get shorter in Anacortes, Island View Elementary is planning their “Winter Walk and Wheel: Light it Up” event, were students will receive headlights and reflective straps to support year round human-powered transportation. The “IWALK Sustainability” Prize will bring this IWALK school eight Walking School Bus leader packs.
Across the country 4,447 schools registered for Walk to School Day Events, setting a new national IWALK record. That is an IWALK event for every 21 middle or elementary schools in the country! Over half of these events are part of an ongoing walking or biking campaign and just under half were participating in IWALK for the very first time. You can see all the schools that hosted events at the IWALK website maintained by the National Center for Safe Routes to School.
For the past two years, Feet First has hosted the Feet First IWALK Challenge to encourage participation and recognize the schools that take part in IWALK. The friendly contest gathers stories and photos of IWALK events from around the state and distributes prizes back to the schools.
Washington does IWALK right! Participants in the first two IWALK Challenges have come from all around the state, including Seattle, Bellevue, Anacortes, Tacoma, Tumwater, Mattawa, Bridgeport, Spokane and more. IWALK organizers find innovative ways to adapt events to different environments, needs, and cultures. More and more schools are turning their events into habits, too, by using IWALK as a starting point for comprehensive and sustained Safe Routes to School programs.